Honorary Members
by SakiJune
Summary: She knew that a lot of people had fought and died for them all. But she just couldn't imagine what she would have discovered on that day, about her man and about herself... Set after HBP, no DH spoilers. Written for the 4th SS Challenge at the CR boards.


Note: Thanks to HMS Frivolity and Felines, who betaed it. You're great, Elo!

**HONORARY MEMBERS**

Her throat was closing in, and her heart beat wildly in her chest. They were at Remus' and Dora's wedding party, when Pomona noticed the shimmer on his blazer, and her curiosity soon turned into anxiety.

"Are you a full member of the Order, Fil? Is that the meaning of the pin you're wearing?"

He went pale, his lips sealed.

"Are we in danger?"

"No," he said at last, with a feeble voice. "No more than anyone else. This golden phoenix does not mean I have done anything useful to the Order... not directly. It is just a gift from Dumbledore... many, many years ago."

Remus was staring at them. He knew about the whole matter, but Albus had told all of them to keep it a secret.

_And his orders are still effective, after all,_ he thought. But Pomona looked so upset...

"Tell her, Filius, it's better if you do. She should know everything about you, just like Dora knows everything about my past..."

So he took his sweetheart's hand and led her out of the room.

"It is so hard for me to talk about, but Remus is right, I should share everything with you."

She was trembling, afraid of what she was about to hear.

"I had a son," he whispered, moving closer to her. "He was young, and... tall, and brave. He wanted to fight You-Know-Who, and he joined the Order... everyone here knew him, except for Tonks and Jones. They were just two little girls when the First War was raging."

She broke into tears, holding him tight. "They killed him, didn't they? Oh Fil!"

He clenched his fists, grinning bitterly.

"Killed him? That's quite a kind expression to use. He's been..."

"Stop, stop... Forgive me! It's horrible, darling! I'm sorry, I've stirred up your grief asking you that..."

"That's okay, 'Mona. You just had to know," he sighed, trying to smile at her. "Why don't we attempt to enjoy the party anyway?"

They joined their friends again, but after a few minutes she walked up to Remus and whispered, "He just told me."

"Oh, well... what else, then?"

"I've never heard about a young Flitwick among the Death Eaters' victims at that time."

Remus gazed at the ceiling for a while, then he turned to her and explained, "Why should he have used his real name, endangering his father's life? We called him _Fen_ wick. Benjamin Fenwick."

Her throat was closing in, again.  
She had read about that, twenty years before. It had been so horrible!

Moody, already smashed, stood up and raised his glass.

"Let's drink to every single soul we have lost in our long battle."

He began to list the dead members of the Order.

"Let's drink to Albus Dumbledore... and Emmeline Vance, and Sirius Black..."

Nymphadora screamed at him, "Stop with that, Mad-Eye! Your toast is in quite poor taste! It's my wedding party... I expect to see people smile, today!"

But Alastor went on.

"James and Lily Potter, Caradoc Dearborn, Marlene McKinnon..."

Filius was waiting to hear his son's name, Pomona knew that, even though she was not looking at him. And then it happened.

"To Edgar Bones, and Benjy Fen..."

She saw her great, little man jumping on a chair, staring at Moody with an air of defiance.

"Please say it correctly, Alastor."

Moody nodded, raising his glass once more.

"To _Benjy Flitwick..._"

Then he turned to Pomona, and Elphias Doge opened his mouth in surprise.

"Don't, Mad-Eye, please don't! She doesn't know!"

"... and to my old friend, the first one who left us, _Vertumnus Sprout_."

"No... not my father!" Pomona whispered, unable to speak louder. "They had told me he had been killed by a Mountain Troll, then..."

"If you account Antonin Dolohov as a Mountain Troll, well, you could say so," Moody knocked back his Firewhisky, then he understood what he had done.

"Sorry, Madam. But, as you can see, _we're all in it_. "

Elphias pointed his wand against Pomona's bosom, and when she lowered her eyes to look, there was an identical pin on her dress too.

A golden, broken-winged phoenix.

She closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her man was there, and he put his arms around her waist, and gently kissed her shoulder. Nobody came near to them, from that moment on, until the end of the party.

"Let's go back home, my darling. Let's go back to Hogwarts. It's our battlefield. Our students need us. Because, 'Mona... I've always thought that ignorance is the shortest path to evil."

"I love you, Fil" she replied. "But please tell me the way to suffer a little less."

"We cannot suffer less. But we can go on together, and share our burden of grief... or was that a Muggle piece of poetry?"

_A Ravenclaw, all the way..._ she thought.

"I love you too, you Goddess of Orchards. You really are the only good thing I have on earth."

_We are both in it_, now I realize that. But - thank Merlin - we are in love.


End file.
